Chapter 714: The Caenlorn Beasts
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Alina and Jullanar, the Warrior Wife and the Hunter Wife.
While polygamy may be an unusual practice on Nirn, that never stopped the men of power from taking multiple spouses during their lifetime. As for the Nordic tradition, polygamy wasn't as prevalent as it was in Elsweyr or Hammerfell, but it had its own forms such as a Mistress or a formal Lover. Rare would be the cases where a man acknowledges two women as his wives since it wasn't usual anyway.
Taking it from the Nordic Folklore, Alina was to be the Warrior-Wife and Jullanar was to be the Hunter-Wife much like how Shor had Kyne as his Warrior-Wife and Dibella as his Bed-Wife, a concubine in other words. Still, Alina held a certain honor and seniority as the first wife and a daughter of a prominent clan. Politically, it would give her privilege in peerage but whether she wanted to practice it or not was her thing in the end. As for Jullanar, marrying her was a decision that required a meeting to be held by House Dare to make the arrangements for upholding the traditions, especially to come up with the term Hunter Wife.
In the end, the two wives were considered a force to be reckoned with and since the two approve of each other, the strength of House Dare was guaranteed to reach undisputed heights. That was confirmed in the fight against the Vampires at the Gates of Saarthal this night.
Alina and Jullanar fought the Bloodscreamer and the Houndmaster respectively and did a number on them which forced the vampire lords into a sorry state.
On the other hand, Jon's brother and closest aide, Wulfur, was hammering against the Edgelord who proved to be a master of the blades despite all his… edginess. Wulfur eventually destroyed his opponent but the Edgelord had a lot of endurance and his armor protected him like a shell against the smites Wulfur delivered.
At one point in the fight, a signal was given to the Vampires from the farthest direction in the mountains and they suddenly started to turn into their Mist forms. In these forms, their bodies become incorporeal and no attack physical or magical can harm them.
Before Alina would come up with any spell that would stop them though, they were already escaping.
That was the case for both the Houndmaster and the Bloodscreamer. As for the Edgelord…
"My flesh is bound to this armor. My soul is bound to my flesh. The steel doesn't merge with my soul. I am trapped!" The Edgelord spoke.
"Idiot! We told you not to wear that stupid armor!" The Houndmaster cussed at the Edgelord.
"But… it called to me… Urgh!" The Edgelord tried to reply but Wulfur pressured him with his hammer until he finally flung him away with a swing.
At this point, the Bloodscreamer and the Houndmaster were about to flee to the mountains without the Edgelord but before they do that, they halted where they were and turned north.
"Lord!" The Houndmaster uttered before charging northward followed by the Bloodscreamer.
"Jon! He's that way." Alina said.
"Shit! They want to gang up on him." Jullanar added.
The two wives looked at one another and with a nod, they chased after the Vampires. This left the Edgelord to the mercy of Wulfur, a mercy that wasn't one of his traits.
"So…" Wulfur spoke.
"So?" The Edgelord tried to stand up on his sword while making sure to spread his cloak symmetrically around himself.
"I can take us there." Wulfur said.
"There is nothing to go to since our world is nothing but a cold void!" The Edgelord shouted.
"Alright. Hold on tight." Wulfur then held the warhammer Volendrung and swooshed it at the Edgelord who took a flight northward.
***
As the Houndmaster and the Bloodscreamer attacked Jon and tried to drink from his blood, the Nightmarshal was in a tight position after seeing his subordinates reduced to ash by the effect of the Chaos Infection.
This loss is too much. He may be able to survive against this monster but no other vampire will.
Those two were Vampire Lords, not some mud-blood vampire from some cavern in the middle of buttfuck nowhere!
And they were turned to ash…
Just like that…
"Harkon Volkihar!"
The Nightmarshal spoke with all hatred and malice. His emotions appeared on his face for the first time and they were pure anger.
"Heh!" The berserking Jon turned to the Nightmarshal with a grin, "Who's that? A friend of yours?"
Jon summoned his gauntlets, the Mammoth Anchors, on his arms and launched their chain attachments at the Nightmarshal who entered his Mist form before they reached him and faded away in the sea of ghosts.
Jon was left alone with his blood boiling and the Blessings of Sheogorath and Boethiah eating away at his mind. He still got some control, judging by the fact that he can still joke around, but he wanted to beat someone up as badly as possible. That's when something fell from the sky right beside him.
Jon turned towards it immediately and his eyes were emitting red with skin fissures of the same color growing around them and he stared at the fallen thing. Strange enough, it was a full suit of armor with a lot of battle marks on it.
"Edgelord!" Jon smiled menacingly and walked to the armor suit knowing that its owner was still within.
"Hey, Jon."
As for the one arriving after the armor suit, it was Wulfur with a hammer on his shoulder.
"You barely dented the armor a few times." Jon said.
"It requires enchanted weapons to destroy. I only used the unenchanted part of Volendrung to not break it." Wulfur replied and joined Jon as the two stood over the armor suit.
"You want the armor so bad?" Jon asked.
"No. It was just satisfying beating it up." Wulfur replied, "Plus, the guy inside is real fun."
Jon smirked.
"It is time to get rid of him though." He then said.
Jon held up the armor suit and raised it to his level. It seemed that the vampire inside was not coming out and his Mist form couldn't fit him to escape from there.
"Dark Silver Armor." Jon said.
"Almost as rare as Mithril." Wulfur added.
With his fist closed, Jon knocked thrice at the armor.
"You still in there, buddy?" Jon called.
"There is a sign for presence, and we are all present in a cage of darkness ready for death." The Edgelord replied in a low and unusual tone for him.
Jon turned to Wulfur and Wulfur shrugged.
"If you're this depressed, let me brighten you up." Jon sneered and slapped away the helmet visor and looked through it.
The Edgelord's face didn't appear fully but he was there and he was in his mist form trapped in that armor.
"Sword." Jon called Bloodskal who flew to his hand and tossed the Edgelord for Wulfur to hold.
He then put two fingers on his sword's blade and started moving them up its edge as his fingers bled on it. At that time, Alina and Jullanar arrived at the scene and saw what Jon was doing.
"Oh boy!" Alina could almost instantly read what was going to happen.
"Akatosh!" Jon then called for something incredible.
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[ Blessing of Akatosh ] < Power >
- Dragonsfire: The blood of the dragon lights up the holy eternal flame of the dragon.
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Jon's blood ignited on the blade and lit it all into a flaming sword, something of peerless magnificence and holy majesty. With that, Jon and Wulfur held together the head of the Edgelord and put the tip of the flaming sword on its visor.
"I'll make sure not to kill you but the flames of agony will leave a mark upon your soul." Jon said in an edgy way as he slid the sword inside through the helm.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" It was then when the wails were heard and the Edgelord finally lost his cool.
He shouted and screamed in a language that wasn't incomprehensible to any since they don't understand begging. As for the Vampire, his mist form protected him from death but it left his soul to roast on a holy flame that burnt his essence till it charred black.
With that, Jon was finally ready to let it go and spare the poor vampire in full armor.
"Jull, make sure he gets chained well in the Black Room." Jon said, "It is about time we have some jester in our court."
While throwing the burning Edgelord down, Jon took a deep breath and sighed.
"You alright, love?" Alina walked to Jon and touched him with her hand to invoke her healing powers.
"So long you are next to me, I am." He replied with his mind somewhere far away.
She was about to say something to him to drive him away from his worries but his shadow suddenly started acting up and Nefertiti walked out on his own with two figures being dragged by her.
With almost zero effort, she threw them at Jon's feet.
"Kitty?" Jon questioned her about the nature of those two.
"Hooman! Gifts." She replied with no interest in being praised.
Alina just needed to take one look at those two and suddenly gasped.
"Nefertiti, what have you done?" She immediately turned to the cat, "Bad girl."
Jon looked down at the two figures who seemed like Nord teenage children.
"Who are they? Intruders?" He asked.
"Guests!" Alina replied.
Jon looked at the children who were still dazed by Nefertiti's teleportation and then at Nefertiti herself, who seemed indifferent about those guests.
"What happened?" He asked.
"They are visitors from the Skaal village here to ask for aid." Alina nodded.
"They are Fey." Nefertiti disagreed.
"What? No!" Alina denied it almost immediately but then hesitated and looked at thin air before asking, "Are they?"
It took her another second for a shocked expression to appear on her face.
"They are?!" She asked the thin air again.
"Your imaginary friend again, Alina?" Jullanar asked.
"What? No! It's Gleam! Elder Gleam." Alina replied.
"Yes. Someone only you can see and speak with." Jullanar nodded, "I have a lot of them. It is fun."
"Gods!" Alina rolled her eyes.
Jon crouched down in front of the teenagers who started to come to their senses and met them eye to eye.
His appearance may have calmed down but he still looked like he walked from a battle. Blood was covering his body and the blessings of Sheogorath and Boethiah hadn't completely worn off. Add that to the burning sword he's still carrying.
"Sister! Watch out!"
Fengrim the brother saw Jon and his survival instincts went wild. He dragged his sister, Alfhild, as far as he could from that demon-like man but she wasn't budging no matter how he pulled her.
Looking at what got her stuck, they spotted that Jon was stepping on the sister's dress as he stood tall and looked down at them.
"You two are my guests, I assume." Jon spoke.
"Jon, don't scare them." From his side, Alina spoke to him while punching his arm.
"Sorry." Jon put his foot away and extinguished the flame from the sword, "We just had a big fight."
While the two siblings were still on the ground, the image of Jon and Wulfur beside him was still nightmare-inducing for normal folk like them except for the fact that they weren't actually normal.
Jon could spot signs of transformations over the limbs of the two limbs such as residual fur and animal scent. The brother had signs of a bear transformation and the sister had signs of a wolf transformation.
"A werewolf and a werebear?" Jon asked.
"No." Nefertiti shook her head, "They are like me."
"Truly?" Jon was surprised, "That's why you called them fey."
"They are… indeed fey." Alina spoke in a shaken tone while recalling the meeting she had with those siblings.
"So… Fey children who claim to be Skaal." Jon said, "That's a new one. What are you? And what do you want from me?"
Jon got close to the siblings while not trying to be any friendlier than the first impression he gave them just now.
"You are… Thane Jon Dare?" Alfhild asked.
"In the flesh." Jon nodded.
"You are more intense than we thought." Fengrim said.
"Brother!" Alfhild shouted at her brother.
"Well… you caught me in a bad moment." Jon said before turning to Nefertiti, "Or should I say my kitty cat caught you and brought you to me in a bad moment. Not sure whose fault is that."
"We just felt something bad and we tried to defend ourselves." Alfhild said.
"Something bad?" Jon asked.
"A vampire." Nefertiti explained.
"Where?" Jon asked.
"In the city… shadow walker… he was heading towards the tower." She said.
"Aha!" Jon nodded and held his chin, "So the damn Vampires were actually trying to buy time for one of theirs to infiltrate the city and sabotage us."
"What can their aim be?" Wulfur asked.
"Depends. Harkon Volkihar seemed to have hired these ones rather than using his own force. It was either to check how powerful we are, steal the Elder Scrolls I possess, or something else entirely. It can be all of that at once too, that's what I would do."
Jon turned to Wulfur and Jullanar while saying something to them while pointing at the Edgelord. He then turned to the siblings.
"You still haven't told me why you sought me out." Jon spoke.
"You are Bloodskal, right?" Fengrim asked.
"I am." Jon nodded.
"In that case, the Skaal ask for your aid. We lost a lot of our people and lost contact with many villages on the island. Even the Dare Company's people in the outpost have gone missing." Fengrim said.
Jon frowned.
"This is alarming! When did this happen?" Jon asked.
"It all started a fortnight ago." Alfhild said.
"And the All-Maker's Stones?" Jon asked.
The siblings looked at each other in wonder.
"They have been blocked. Those who have gone missing would appear and disappear over the All-Maker Stones and no one ever managed to even speak to them." Alfhild said.
Jon shut his eyes and let out a long and tired sigh.
"Miraak." He mumbled and looked at the sea.
After a minute of confirming the signs of the Return of Miraak, Jon asked the two siblings to return to the city and prepare for departure back to Solstheim. Wulfur escorted them back to Winterhold while Jullanar dragged the Edgelord away to the dungeon.
Jon and Alina remained back in the city.
"It seems that time is of the essence again." She said.
"Yes. We got the Companions, the College, the Thieves Guild, and the Dark Brotherhood at our beck and call. We can do much now but this is still way too much." Jon said and then smiled, "It is like everything, everywhere, all at once."
The Dragon Crisis, the Vampire Crisis, and Solstheim's Crisis.
The three main quests are finally running all at once.
"Hey, wife." Jon called Alina.
"Yes."
"A Bear and a Wolf Fey from Solstheim. No idea what that is?" He asked while watching the siblings taken away with Wulfur.
"Hmmm." Alina started thinking before coming to something, "I've read once that there are sacred beasts to the Skaal known as Caenlorn Wolves. Another thing is that the Skaal are sometimes thought to worship Wolves and Bears."
"Not the All-Maker?" Jon asked.
"The All-Maker is the central figure, of course. The Wolves and Bears are his messengers and from those messengers are the Caenlorn Wolves… no mention of Caenlorn Bears though." Alina said.
"Curious." Jon said and looked intensely at the siblings, "Curious indeed."
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A/n: Help me reach my Goal on P4treon & Join Discord! ➡️ https://linktr.ee/donovel ⬅️
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